Join us for the David Surette Mandolin Festival kick-off concert! Featuring performances by Carlo Aonzo, Dan Bui, Joe K. Walsh, Keith Murphy, and special guests Susie and Julianna Burke. Don't miss this stellar lineup of musicians who, between them, cover many musical styles. All well versed in tradition, these talented players also bring tradition into new places.

Carlo Aonzo’s first teacher in his native Savona, Italy was his father Giuseppi, who instilled in him a love and respect for the mandolin and classical mandolin music that has remained with him all his life.  Carlo has performed and taught workshops and seminars and collaborated with orchestras all over the world.  He plays in many styles other than classical, including bluegrass and jazz, and has recorded with the Carlo Aonzo Trio,  David Grisman, and many others. Carlo runs his own mandolin camps in Italy, to which he invited David Surette to teach in 2018 and 2019. Since 2020, Carlo has created and produced a series of short documentaries on the history of the mandolin, "L'Italia dei 1000 Mandolini" (the 1,000 mandolins of Italy.)

Hailing from the vast suburbs of Houston Texas, Dan Bui currently makes his home in Cambridge, MA where he plays the mandolin in a variety of Boston and New England bands. Dan is a member of the festival-favorite quartet Twisted Pine, of which Red Line Roots says, "Each member of this band is a runaway freight train of talent." He is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music, where he studied with acoustic luminaries like John McGann, Darol Anger, Joe Walsh, and Jason Anick.

Roots music isn't made in a vacuum. It's the creation of a community, of a circle of friends, of a teacher and a student. It’s something to be passed back and forth to be treasured. As an acclaimed master of American roots music, mandolinist and songwriter Joe K. Walsh knows this better than most. He’s toured with countless artists, collaborated with other master musicians like Darol anger and the Gibson Brothers, founded progressive stringband Joy Kills sorrow in the early 2000s, and is currently on faculty at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. His new album, Borderland, is an exercise in subtlety and careful creation. Turning through songs he wrote, or setting the words of Yeats to music, and picking out instrumental tunes of his own creation, Walsh plays and sings with the kind of ease that comes from years of practice and creation.

A native of Newfoundland, Keith Murphy’s traditional song repertoire is based in Eastern Canada and Quebec as well as his current home, Vermont. His direct and intimate style of traditional singing in English and French infuses old ballads and songs with a powerful immediacy while his rhythmic and percussive finger style of guitar playing brings new shape and color to his songs. His 2005 album, Bound for Canaan showcased his refined sense of balance between innovation and tradition while Suffer No Loss (2014) is a beautifully spare recording in the style of early classic recordings of the traditional English and Celtic music revival. His most recent solo recording is Land of Fish and Seals (2018) – an ever tasteful mix of traditional and tradition-inspired songs in English and French with an impressive list of guest artists – Becky Tracy, Yann Falquet, Pascal Gemme, Rani Arbo and Mark Roberts.

Susie Burke played, toured and recorded with her husband David Surette for nearly 35 years.  David always had Susie back him up and sing a few songs at Mando fest, and Susie is happy to be carrying on the festival with her daughters and CCMS. She will be joined in the concert by her and David’s daughter, singer Julianna Burke.

This event sold out early last year, so don't wait to buy your tickets!

$22 advance/ $25 day of

*fees not included ($2 facility fee per ticket + cc processing fees)